SMOOTH LIKE BUTTER

Back to the avocado.  The one from a few days ago was wonderful and a dear friend gave me another one.  What a whopper!  It is called a Mantequilla avocado and is locally also called Yucatan avocado.  Either way it is delicious.

Mantequilla means butter.  The flesh is a beautiful bright yellow color. That's what it spreads like.   Its just so creamy and smooth on a fresh tortilla with warm roasted chicken and hot sauce.  Just so yummy.

CAN YOU ID THIS FRUIT?

The wide variety of flora and fauna, here in Campeche, greatly intregs me.  There are so many types I have never seen before.  It is claimed that many have medicinal purposes, and I'm sure they do.
This one I haven't really found a satisying name for.  It is dark red and has four sections, as you can likely tell from the shape.

It is purported to be able to help with prostate ills.  If you have even a little clue do post a comment.
An inquiring mind needs to know. 

MARVELLOUS MARANON OR BETTER KNOWN AS…

This interesting fruit looks rather like a cross between and apple and a pepper…with a bean stuck on the end. When I saw a vendor selling this fruit they had it all attractively arranged.  I thought it was an interesting presentation of this fruit and how unusual that they stuck a bean on it.  Turns out the bean was on it long before the vendor got a hold of it.   It comes in red, pink, yellow and variations in between.

Amongst other things they call it “Devil Fruit”.  Supposedly the devil tried to create a fruit but messed up and put the seed on the outside.   This is far too interesting a fruit not to be designed.  I’ll stick with calling it Maranon.   

The stem is on the opposite end of the beanlike part and so grows with the bean on the bottom.  It does make you wonder which end is up.

The fruit has rather a strong flavour but not unpleasant.  As with many fruits and veggies, the ingenious Mexican women make a refreshing drink out of it.  I’m told the flavour is best if you squish it with your hands rather than use a blender.   Both ways tasted great to me but I’m only a novice taster.  Then it needs to be strained and sugar added along with water and lemon juice to taste.  Refreshing indeed!

The pulp tastes rather like apple with a hint of bacon.    Pork chops and apple sauce is a combo we love but not a flavor I'd expect in a fruit.

The bean part they take off and roast and call it Indian bean.  This has to be done very carefully as it contains a toxin that proper roasting takes care of.  I won’t be trying this at home as it can be a severe irritant for the skin and lungs.

Have you guessed the other name for the bean?  It’s that delicious nut, the cashew. 

Whodathunk?!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cashew

VERY DELICIOUS ...WITH CHILE AND LEMON

 Campeche is certainly rich with a variety of fruits.  There are always fresh bananas, at least a couple of kinds of pineapples and various imported fruits at the market.

The interesting thing is seeing the local fruit ‘still on the vine’.  Being a gal from Canuckville I had no idea how some of these grew. 

Take mangoes, they grow on a huge tree.  For some reason I just thought a 15 foot bush instead of a forty foot tree. 

And avocadoes (aguacote in Spanish), it’s a big tree also.  I was like a little child when I saw my first tree, totally fascinated.  Maybe when cultivated they keep them smaller like apple trees, that I am familiar with.  It was nice to see them in more of a natural state.  This one takes up most of the left side of the photo. 

Here are two types of avacadoes but there are many.  Just waiting for the light green one to ripen to try for the first time.  Notice the bottle of Tajin (for us gringos, Taheen). More on that later.

Then there is the unique pomegranate known as granada here.  But whatever you call it don’t eat it with your ‘Sunday go to meeting’ white shirt on.  Those lovely tart, little jewels are wonderful but they’ll stain where they land.

Zapote and mamey are supposed to be cousins.  Zapote looks rather like a peach with the pit exposed in the following photo but doesn’t taste like it.   Mamey is a larger oval fruit and rather fuzzy.  Its orange purplishish flesh around a single pit makes me think of velvet some how.  As in the expression, "velvetty smooth".

In the same photo are plums called ciruelas.  This guy is big on pit and only a thin flesh.  How can you describe a flavour?  Just taste a perfectly ripe one, if you should have the chance.  They are very pleasant.  This photo was in an earlier post but wasn't labled. 

Guayas are a grape sized fruit that has a gold rough skin like a Cox’s orange apple.  Is that a new kind of apple for you?  They were one of my father’s favorites and mine also.  They are hard to come by even in apple country.

Grosella is a small golden yellow fruit that when boiled turns bright red.  Its cooked with sugar and they make a candy out of it.  It looks rather like a tiny pumpkin but grows on a tree.  Our young friend was telling us how good they are.  She tastes one and her face nearly turns inside out as it is so sour.   Maybe I’ll wait a wee bit more for it to ripen before I try this one. 

This is my husband’s favourite, guanabana.  After hearing the name he promptly broke out singing the name to the Muppets “Mana mana” song.  I won’t post a recording of that.  The white flesh of this fruit is amazingly delicious in drinks and shakes.  You may know it as soursop.  It is a definite winner in our books.

This is where Tajin comes in.  It’s a zippy powder combo of chile, salt and lemon. Once our friends have encouraged us to try the wonderful varieties of fruits and veggies then the refrain will be,  “They are very delicious, ...especially with chile and lemon”.  Well don’t knock it 'til you tried it.  We are rather hooked on mango that way.

THIS IS THE DREADED RAINY SEASON???

http://www.explorandomexico.com/state/4/Campeche/geography/ 

“No elevations are found and the terrain is mostly flat as in the rest of the peninsula; the climate is warm and sub-humid, with an average temperature of 26.3ºC and a rainy season from June to October. The tropical storms that are common during this season in the peninsula eventually reach the Campeche coasts.”  This quote is from the link above.

To me the sound of rainy season is one dreary day of rain after another with lots of wet and cold.  I’m from the east coast of Canada and that often sums up much of our spring and maybe a good chunk of our summer.  The east does have its beauty even in the rain though.   

Here in Campeche its one fabulous sunny day after another with the odd few hours of a spectacular rain storm show thrown in to refresh the greenery and you, if you let it.

So far the rain only seems to come about every week and a half for a few hours.  Now when it does rain here but it’s quite an event.  The sky is really dark with ominous and unusual cloud formations.  When it starts be assured, all will be soaked.  You get a clue of this when you see a door and the door step covers about a foot of the bottom of the door.  This is so the water will not run in when the street floods.

If you are coming or going the first step is a doozy.  Notice where the curly door handle is. 

Our street becomes a river as you see shoes, bottles and whatever else you might be missing flowing along. 

And the lightening and thunder show.  Fabulous!  Caught a bit of it the other week. 

Maybe it will get worse as we get into hurricane season.  For now we will enjoy the brief shows and how they refresh all. 

It reminds me of when our dear mother would indulge us and let us go out into the rain in our bathing suits.  That was such a treat!  We could be wet with the rain and run and splash in every mud hole that a child is usually drawn to.  It was a delight!  Not sure how she ended up cleaning two little muddy piggies but it was a great time of youthful fun.  Clean doesn’t seem the right word but really it was good, clean fun.

Do you have a happy rainy day memory or two?  Love to hear them.

PITAHAYA AND A MEMORY FROM MY YOUTH

We have been seeing this familiar looking cacti hanging over fences and growing up trees and walls.

 It reminded me of one a dear friend had in her living room.  It certainly wasn't much to look at but we all have different tastes.  (Look at the wide variety of couples in the world and we see attractive things in our mate that others may not.)  She would wait up until the wee early hours of the morning to get a glimpse of its flowers.  Well this week we were a few hours short of seeing an amazing view of this "Queen of the Night".

 



Then I found out that this interesting family of cacti has very unusual fruits.  It is called Pitahaya or "dragon fruit" and Hylocereus undatus .
The previous photo of the single flower and the next photo of the fruit are from wikipedia. This is the "dragon fruit".  Its taste is quite refreshing but does not match its name.  I would have never realized this plant from my youth and this exotic looking fruit were connected. So many fascinating things to discover in sunny Mexico.